


Iterations of Myself

by OlkarianPrincess



Series: Season 3 Celebration Ficlets [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Clones, F/M, Ficlet, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 13:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11990586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlkarianPrincess/pseuds/OlkarianPrincess
Summary: Prompt - Shiro/Pidge: She knows he’s a clone, but he wants to be real. He will do whatever it takes to be real, to hold her love like the original. Even if he has to burn the universe to the ground.





	Iterations of Myself

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt by @januarycarnation who clearly hATeS me and wants me to have feels
> 
> Welcome to the angst fest.

Shiro spared Pidge a glance, but when their eyes met her face turned sour and she quickly looked away. He tried to focus on the paladins’ meeting, but his attention wavered. Allura’s words went in through one ear and out the other. He desperately wished to see Pidge smile at him like she used to…well, like she smiled at the original Shiro.

He didn’t believe the news when Pidge told him that he was a clone. Her tone was harsh and unforgiving, but no matter how hard he had tried to deny it, a voice in the depths of his heart told him that the message was true. And she resented him for it. The real Shiro was gone, forever lost in the cold abyss of space, and somehow it was all his fault.

“Pidge…” he followed her through the hallways of the castle, but she refused to even turn around.

“Pidge please…” he reached out to touch her shoulder.

“No!” she turned to face him, smacking his hand away from her. Tears were streaming down her face.

“Shir-Kuron.”

That’s what she called him in private, Kuron.

“I’ll keep this facade up in front of the team. It’s not for you, it’s to spare their feelings. But you aren’t Shiro. You’re nothing like him.”

She turned back around and stormed off.

“But I am…” he whispered, fully aware that she wouldn’t hear him.

After that, he decided to take a different course of action. Unless they were in a meeting or on a mission, he took care to leave the room when she entered. The few times that they would interact, Pidge avoided eye contact. Eventually, he found Hunk wandering into his room.

“What’s up?” he asked the yellow paladin.

“Shiro…can we talk?” Hunk sat down on the bed.

“Yeah, of course,” he pulled out his chair.

Hunk scratched at the back of his neck, “Look man….I don’t know how to say this but what’s up with you and Pidge?”

Shiro’s stomach flipped.

“Uh, I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You’ve been avoiding her. At least, that’s what it looks like.”

Shiro always thought it was cute how Hunk made lots of gestures when he talked, at least in conversations with the paladins. Well, the old Shiro thought it was cute. Shiro frowned when he realized that the fond memories weren’t his own.

“You aren’t Shiro,” Pidge’s words echoed in his mind.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Hunk said, bringing Shiro out of his thoughts.

“Oh, no it wasn’t you. I’m sorry, you’re right though. Things haven’t been great between Pidge and I.”

“What’s wrong? Is it…you know what?”

Shiro’s forehead pinched together.

“Whoops. Pidge didn’t tell you that I knew? I know it was supposed to be a secret, and I swear I haven’t told anyone about you two, I just thought you knew that I knew-”

“What are you talking about, Hunk?”

“Your relationship. The K-I-S-S-I-N-G sort,” Hunk was always so straight forward.

“Oh.”

Those memories were real. The original Shiro’s memories. He had thought them to be no more than dreams, fantasies at best. The soft memories of holding Pidge close when he had nightmares, of pulling her in his arms to kiss her when a mission went well, of falling asleep on her lap as she worked - they were all real.

“Please don’t be mad at Pidge. She didn’t tell me, I just found out on accident.”

Shiro shook his head, “It’s fine, I’m not upset. Let’s just keep this between us though.”

“Of course.”

“And don’t worry about Pidge and I, she’s just feeling bad about Matt.”

Hunk’s frown gave away his suspicion of Shiro’s answer, but his trust seemed to win out. He didn’t pry further. Shiro’s guilt only depend. He wanted to tell Hunk who he was, but he was afraid that his friend would react the same way Pidge did.

“Okay, let me know if you need anything. I love you guys.”

Shiro smiled, “We love you too.”

Shiro’s mind buzzed with activity long after Hunk left. That night, sleep evaded him. When he was finally able to get some rest, his dreams were less than pleasant.

“It’s not your fault.”

Shiro turned around. The voice belonged to a shadowed figure sitting at…where was he? A bar?

“It feels like it is,” he told the man.

“It’s not,” suddenly, the man was no longer cloaked in darkness.

He gasped at the sight of his own face - rather, the face of the original Shiro.

“You’re me. The real me.”

The original shook his head.

“No, we’re different people.”

“Right, sorry…”

“I should clarify,” Shiro took a sip from his glass before continuing. “You’re Kuron and I’m Shiro, and that makes us different. But just because you didn’t live through the events in your memory doesn’t mean that your feelings aren’t real. Your soul is real. The quintessence that runs through you is, in a very real way, connected to mine.”

“She’ll never believe it.”

Shiro took another sip, “We may be different people, but we’re iterations of the same individual. Therefore, you should know that she’ll come around.”

Shiro - no, Kuron - was hit with every negative and memory that he had been holding on to. They dated back to before his existence, to the pain that Shiro had masked from others. The agony and torture of injuring Matt crushed him, and the terrible flashbacks to being a prisoner of the Galra was like a knife to the heart. But nothing was as bad as the pain he felt remembering his time on the stolen Galra spacecraft when he thought he was going to die - when he realized that he’d never see Katie Holt again.

Kuron woke from his dream drenched in sweat. He was unable to go back to sleep, so he decided to go to the kitchen instead. On his way there, he took a detour. As he suspected, light flooded into the hall from the door of the Green Lion’s hangar. He peaked in and saw Pidge, nodding off with her computer still set up in her lap.

Careful not to wake her, he put away her things before lifting her up and carrying her off to her room.

“You should take better care of yourself,” he whispered, remembering the nights when Shiro would take her to bed and snuggle up next to her in order to ensure that she wouldn’t get up again. It worked, more or less.

If she woke up along the way, she didn’t let on.

Kuron silently opened her door and placed her on her bed. Before leaving, he gently placed his palm on her head. She opened her eyes to glare at him, but he didn’t flinch back like he would’ve in the past.

Instead, he spoke softly, “I’m not him, I never will be. I’m sorry for that. But it doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I’ll always look after you. It’s the least I can do for him.”

He didn’t wait for a response, he simply turned and left, his heart racing as he finally made it to the kitchen.

It wasn’t that Pidge was kinder to him after that night, but their interactions had less of an edge to them. Kuron was always mindful of her feelings, never getting too close to her or assuming anything about her feelings towards him, but he always looked out for her. Whether it was in the battle field or at home in the Castle of Lions, he took care of her. For him, it was enough. He wanted to show her that she was his world, but he accepted that she’d always blame him for Shiro’s death. Everyone else, however, remained blissfully ignorant of the clone’s true identity. Kuron had a feeling that the truth would one day be revealed, but he respected Pidge’s wishes and tried to convince himself that he didn’t merely for fear of rejection.

The day for the truth came quickly. Finally, the paladins were able to corner Lotor and his generals. They were close to success when an unexpected enemy arrived to stop them.

“Well done, my son, but I think it is time to end this,” Haggar’s voiced echoed through the canyon that was their battleground.

Kuron turned to Pidge and she gave him a nod. He sighed a breath of relief.

“My son may be clever, but he has much to learn. Champion, if you would please?”

Kuron hit a button on his arm and all of the paladins cried out. Their bayards burst with electric energy, forcing them to drop them for fear of serious injury. They looked at Kuron in shock. His heart was heavy.

“This,” Haggar began.

Shiro took a deep breath.

“Is my creation,” she pointed a bony finger at Kuron. “Come forth, my champion.”

Kuron’s arm glowed as he walked towards Haggar. In his mind, he counted the steps. Behind the witch, Lotor and his generals collected themselves and prepared for another assault.

“He is my puppet,” Haggar laughed. “Turn and face your former allies.”

Kuron focused his gaze on Pidge, doing his best to avoid the hurt expressions of his friends.

“Eliminate them.”

There were several things that everyone present at the battle knew in that moment: the first was that Kuron was not Shiro. The second, that Haggar had placed him in order to destroy the paladins. And the third fact was that both Shiro, and by extension, Kuron, were deadly fighters. However, there was a specific set of vital pieces of information that only two of the individuals present there knew. This information was that Haggar’s plan had been discovered in an analysis of Kuron’s arm and that countermeasures had been taken. The two that knew this were Pidge and Kuron.

“Now!” Pidge shouted, and Kuron immediately turned while hitting another button on his arm.

He attacked Haggar while the paladins collected their weapons so that they could face Lotor and his generals. Pidge’s plan was perfect except for one simple error. Haggar evaded Kuron’s strikes and, before he could figure out what she was doing, slipped behind him. He turned to see her rushing straight for Pidge, a dagger in her hand. Pidge, unable to pick up her still malfunctioning bayard, tripped backwards.

Kuron had no time to think, but he didn’t need it.

He tackled Haggar to the ground and saved the woman he loved in exchange for a deadly price. With one blast from his gun, the witch was incapacitated, but as a result of his maneuver he had left himself wide open. Her dagger had slipped past a crack in his armor and dug its way deeply into his flesh.

The last thing he saw was Pidge’s face of his.

“I’ll always protect you,” he whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> My tags from the original post: Anyway Kuron doesn't die he's just *very injured* and when he wakes up he and Pidge make up. of course it's not like how it was between her and Shiro they both know he's a different person, but they get closer and explore his differences together, giving him a sense of individuality. they forge their own relationship that's unique and beautiful. obvs also everyone is 18+, prompt thing for januarycarnation who will be the death of me apparently


End file.
